Chaos Rising: The Realms Book Six: (An Epic LitRPG Series)

by C. M. Carney

  Yrriel and Grimliir waited for them by the fortress' front gates. A large contingent of rangers and warborn guarded the battlements. Despite their recent defeat of Sziilloth, the corrupted spider queen, the chaos breach in the caverns below the ruins remained active, and the forces of Dar Thoriim and Sylvan Aenor remained ever vigilant.

  As Lex walked through the wooden doors of the fortress, a hundred pairs of eyes watched him, their hopes and fears weighing on him. It made Gryph’s loss that much more poignant. “I’m not ready for this,” Lex said in a low voice.

  “Nobody ever is,” Vonn said. “But, you’ll be fine.”

  Lex nodded his thanks and then looked sideways at the agile rogue. “So, now that I’m your noble leader, does this mean you’re going to show me more respect?”

  “Most certainly not,” Vonn retorted as if the very notion of treating Lex with respect was offensive. “Someone has to curb your natural instincts towards idiocy.”

  "And you think you’re the man for the job?" Lex asked, a smile curling the corners of his lips.

  "I serve where I am able."

  "Who's the real idiot in that scenario? The idiot or the idiot who follows the idiot?"

  "That's a lot of idiots."

  Lex couldn't keep the grin from his face. Somehow having Vonn still treat him like the idiot younger brother comforted him. As if his world had not been tossed upside down and torn asunder by Gryph’s disappearance. A small part of his mind wondered what kind of person took solace from insults, but he shushed that part. It had never done him any good before, and it sure wouldn't now.

  “Few of us get what we want in these Realms. If it is my duty to be your nursemaid in this life, then I will accept that burden.”

  “How noble of you,” Lex said with a grin.

  Vonn bowed slightly, accepting the light ribbing.

  “Errat knows from the many tales of the great heroes of Earth which friend Lex has been kind enough to share with me, that he will make a most excellent leader. He has the toughness of Chuck Norris, the courage of Wonder Woman, and the ...”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence pal.”

  “... stunning good looks of Kermit the Frog,” Errat continued.

  Lex stumbled over his feet and looked up at the grinning warborn. “Yeah buddy, you didn’t get some of those details right. But I appreciate the sentiment. I think.”

  “I am thankful that providence has given us separate missions,” Ovyrm said with no hint of jest.

  Lex pouted, but his mood brightened when Yrriel approached. “Ignore the adjudicator, lover. If this Kermit is anything like you, then he is quite the looker.”

  “Can we move on please?” Lex begged, his face flushing.

  “Fer once we are in agreement,” Grimliir said.

  Over the next several minutes, Yrriel taught the others the basics of Imbuing, enabling them to operate the Port Gate. The group said their goodbyes and their good lucks. Raathiel curled herself around Lex’s shoulders and cooed a sad song into his ear. Lex promised her via private link that he’d find Gryph. Eris smirked at his threat of bodily violence if she let anything happen to Brynn, Raathiel or Ovyrm

  Lex turned to the xydai, a stern look on his face. “Keep an eye on that one.” He nodded towards Eris

  “I keep both eyes on everyone.” The adjudicator paused. “You find him, and you bring him back.”

  Lex opened his mouth to respond when Vonn sidled up and whispered. “I must protect Gryph.”

  “Hey, that’s what I was gonna say.”

  “We know and we respect you for it,” Ovyrm said, the smallest of smiles turning up the corner of his mouth. With his good arm, Ovyrm clasped Lex's wrist. The NPC could think of nothing to say, so he simply nodded.

  Lex returned his attention to the Port Gate and tapped the sequence of runic symbols for the Barrow into the control panel. At the edge of hearing, a resonant hum rose, forcing the hair on Lex’s arms to stand on end. A pinpoint of light appeared at the center of the archway and expanded into a shimmering field of multi-hued light that was both difficult to perceive and painful to look at. Lex averted his gaze.

  “You sure you want to stand that close to it?” Vonn asked. “It might surge and punch you in the jumblies.”

  “First, there’s only one force in all the Realms who gets to handle my jumblies.” He winked at Yrriel who blew an air kiss back. “And second, that’s not how a Port Gate works. It’s not a stargate. It ain’t gonna explode outwards like some interstellar toilet being flushed. It just opens.”

  The Port Gate opened, and Lex jumped. Standing mere inches from him, on the other side of the archway, was the desiccated corpse of a dread knight. It stared at him with milky, unblinking eyes. Its rotten toothed mouth opened and a guttural “Nnnnngggggg” pushed past a random assemblage of teeth.

  A less than manly squeal pushed past Lex’s lips and he fell back onto the grass. “What the hell?”

  “I warned ya,” Vonn said helping Lex to his feet. Lex brushed himself clean and glanced past the undead guard and into the room. A throne of fused bone sat directly in front of the archway. This was the seat of the Barrow King, but there was no sight of its normal occupant.

  “Who dareth to set foot in the deadly dungeon of the malevolent Barrow King?” came a cracking, pubescent voice. “Identify yourself or I shall consume thine soul and send you down to the fiery pits of eternal damnation.”

  “Simon, call off your goon, we’re in a hurry here,” Lex said, his irritation a poor salve for his embarrassment.

  A skull clad in a black hood peered from around the edge of the archway. Two glowing eldritch lights hovered inside the skull’s eye sockets and they grew thinner and dimmed in suspicion. “Lex?”

  “Yeah, it's me, now tell this rotting sack to step aside. We need to talk.”

  “Where’s Gryph?” Simon asked. “I’m the boss unless Gryph is around.”

  “Simon!” Lex roared and for a moment he actually felt like Gryph.

  Simon flinched and then scowled. “Fine. Jeez, dude. No need to be all yelly in front of the help. I’m the master of this Barrow and I need to project a certain air of authority.

  So, this is what it's like to have authority. Though he never wanted to be a leader, he was enjoying the moment.

  “You heard the short fella, move out of the way.”

  And now it's gone. Lex glared at Simon until the teenage lich ‘blinked’ and turned his gaze away, muttering and grumbling.

  Simon bonked the dead knight atop the head with a skeletal fist, dislodging its jaw. The jaw fell to the ground and crunched under its own foot as the undead guard shambled aside. “Nnnnnggggg,” it said. If the mistreatment or its loss of body parts offended the walking corpse, it showed no sign.

  Lex passed through the threshold, followed by Vonn and Errat. Simon started to prattle again, but Lex held up a finger telling him to wait. He looked through the gate to Ovyrm. “Good luck.”

  “To you as well,” Ovyrm said and bowed. He tapped the control runes and the space inside the arch shimmered and blinked out.

  Lex closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, letting his mind find focus. The air was musty and smelled of old rot. The creaking of the dread knight’s rusty armor and the incessant drip, drip, drip of water played an accompanying tune to his own thundering heartbeat. You can do this, Lex. He opened his eyes and found Simon staring at him, his mouth hanging open as if he was about to speak.

  Lex didn’t give him the chance. “Gryph is missing,” Lex said. “We need to get to Harlan’s Watch and we’re taking your Port Icon with us.”

  “Now, hang on a minute. Who says you can take my stuff? And what do you mean missing?”

  “As in not here and we cannot find him,” Vonn said, his tone mocking. “Or does that word mean something different where you’re from?”

  Simon’s eyes scowled and opened his mouth, but no ready retort was forthcoming.

  Lex could almost see Simon’s p
out and cast a sideways grin at Vonn. “So that’s what it feels like when someone else gets the pointy end of your wit. I am very much enjoying it.”

  “Oh, don’t you worry. I got plenty more snark left in the well, but I do enjoy fresh meat from time to time. Keeps the skills fresh. Not that Simon has any meat, being all bony and such.”

  “I’m not sure I like you much, man,” Simon said, then a melancholy look filled his skull. After a short pause, Simon spoke again. “So, Gryph is really missing?”

  “He is, kid,” Lex said, sympathetic to the undead teen's plight. Simon brightened at the small kindness and Lex wondered how two glowing green lights inside the eye sockets of the old skull could show emotion so effectively.

  “So, if Gryph is missing, that kinda makes me the boss around here.” He looked intently at Vonn. “So, you should mind what you say and who you say it to, or else.”

  “Or else what?” Errat asked, his tone suggesting true curiosity.

  “Or else, or else … it’s an expression you lug-nut-less Frankenstein,” Simon said and looked at Lex. “Jeez, why’d you have to bring this guy?”

  “Frankenstein?” The reference to Earth literature was curious. “How do you know about Frankenstein?”

  Simon’s bony shoulders went up in a shrug. “I dunno. Ever since Gryph’s mind touched mine it's been full of lotsa weird stuff.”

  "Okay then. Are you done playing the tough guy?"

  “Whatever. You’re the boss. Are you happy now?”

  “Not really,” Lex admitted with a shrug.

  “Yeah, well, neither am I.” A genuine sadness overcame the skeletal teen. “So, we have no idea where Gryph is?”

  “He was forced from the Realms, which means he’s likely back on Earth. We don’t know the who or the why, though I have some ideas. Worst of all, we have no way of getting in touch with him. But Sean might. If he can’t help us, I fear we'll never see Gryph again.”

  Simon nodded and looked from Lex to Errat to Vonn. “So, why’s it just the three of you? Why did the others stay behind?”

  “They have another mission. A secret mission.”

  “What kinda secret mission?”

  Lex’s mouth hung open at the inanity of the comment, and he turned to Vonn. “You wanna take this one?”

  “No, it’s too easy. There’s no sport in it.”

  “Fair enough.” He turned back to Simon and spoke in a slow, methodical tone. “Secret, as in you don't need to know nothin' about it.”

  “Fine,” Simon grumbled. “Don’t gotta be a jerk about it.”

  Silence hung heavy and a shimmer of guilt pushed through Lex. Sure, Simon was obnoxious, but it had to be tough to be mostly dead and stuck in the Barrow. Lex almost apologized, but then he had another idea and in typical Lex fashion he blurted it out before fully thinking it over. “Why don’t you come with us?”

  “What?” Simon said, his tone filled with a twinge of hope.

  “Yeah, what?” Vonn asked. His tone was much less friendly to Lex’s ears.

  “Hear me out. We could use the help. I get that it fails the ‘what would Gryph do’ test, but maybe we need some out of the box thinking.”

  “There’s out of the box and then there’s rotten brain dumb thinking,” Vonn retorted. “I’ll list some of the many reasons. First, this is a stealth mission, and to be stealthy we don’t need, nor want a bunch of guys. Otherwise, we would have brought a few rangers or maybe one of those paladin fellas.”

  “Or more brothers of Errat,” Errat chimed in.

  “Or that, though you warborn are not the stealthiest guys I know. Second, how do you think the fine people of Harlan’s Watch would react to seeing him walking around town all bone white and undead?”

  “Okay those are some excellent points,” Lex began, but Vonn interrupted him before he could say anything else.

  “Third, how the hell is he gonna help us find Gryph? He’s rude, immature and has no discernible talents as far as I can see.”

  “Hey,” Simon retorted. “I got lotsa talents.”

  “Like what?” Vonn asked.

  “Like this.” He held his bony hands out before him and turned towards the dread knight with the missing jaw. Eldritch energy spun in arcs around his forearms and lashed out like a pair of jagged green lightning bolts. They tore into the undead creature’s flesh and the beast began to spasm.

  Simon raised his hands and lifted the dread knight off its feet, spasming in the bright surges of green light. Simon pushed his hands closer together and the undead guard’s body began to implode like an empty soda can as if some great, unseen force was crushing it. The body twisted in a variety of odd angles and then crunched down into a mass of skin, bones, and hair that was no bigger than Simon’s own skull. A moment later, Simon’s spell ended, and the mass fell to the floor with a dry thwack.

  Vonn exchanged a look with Lex that was part impressed and part wary. Errat grinned and nudged the dread knights remains with the toe of his boot.

  “Okay then, works for me,” Lex said. “Welcome to the team Simon.”

  “We will live to regret this,” Vonn whispered.

  “Nah man, I have a good feeling about this.”

  “We'll definitely regret this and then die.”

  “You should have more faith man.”

  “You’re like the village crazy lady, taking in a dozen stray cats who poop all over her house.”

  “That analogy is stupid. I don’t even have a house.”

  A blurting outburst from Simon cut any further discussion of the matter short. “Oh, come on, that is so not fair.”

  “Uh, what?” Lex asked, his face painted with confusion. “I told you, you’re on the team kid. What the hell are you bitching about?”

  Simon’s green eyes alternated between wide surprise and slits of anger. His mouth opened and closed like he was trying, but failing, to get a word in while arguing with his big brother. He stomped his foot, threw his hands down at his side, arms all rigid and tight. He seemed every one of his teenage years. Finally, his shoulders slumped in defeat and he walked closer to Lex and the others. His head hung low, and he refused to meet Lex’s gaze.

  “The Barrow says I can’t go,” Simon said in the disappointed tone of a kid denied a BB gun for Christmas. “Says it is too dangerous.”

  “The Barrow says?” Lex gave a confused glance to Errat and Vonn. “What like it’s your daddy?”

  “No,” Simon said in anger, his eyes boiling over with green energy as he loomed over Lex. “Not like that at all.”

  “It kinda sounds like that,” Vonn said, cool as ever.

  “It is not my daddy!” Simon roared.

  "Errat thinks one should respect your father, even if that father is a sentient dungeon made to consume the life energy of living beings." Errat spoke as if his words contained some great wisdom. “But, it is also true, in Errat’s estimation, that a good parent, one who wishes to see their child grow, knows when to let go, knows when their child is ready to take on a larger role in this wide world of ours."

  Lex gave him an odd glance. "Who are you?" Before Errat could answer, a deep rumble moved through the floor and up the walls as if the Barrow was showing its ire. “Careful man, you kinda called the Barrow a helicopter mom."

  Simon’s eyes softened and dimmed as he listened to the internal voice of the Barrow. His eyes brightened and the shifting skull somehow seemed to smile. His eyes snapped up to Lex, brimming with excitement.

  “It wants to talk to you, alone,” Simon said, his voice flat, almost worried. His skeletal hand lashed out, grabbing Lex by the forehead. In an instant, the ancient presence of the Barrow filled Lex’s mind.

  3

  The world around Lex swirled and turned the dull gray of a fog-shrouded morning. It was both peaceful and disturbing. He could still see Errat, Vonn, and Simon, but a moment later they grew faint, almost distant.

  The heavy presence of the Barrow writhed around him, weighing him down, like a t
hick blanket woven from strands of dread. He shivered, realizing that once again he had entered the gullet of an ancient being whose sole purpose was to draw adventurers into its midst and consume them.

  Gryph had promised him that the humanizing influence of Simon, and Gryph himself, had curbed most of the Barrow’s more nefarious tendencies. The Barrow was different now that it was no longer under Ouzeriuo's thumb.

  “It is not as evil as it seems at first glance,” Gryph had told him.

  But with Gryph gone, could Lex trust that the Barrow’s viler tendencies had not returned? He shivered as the ageless weight of the Barrow’s mind settled over his own.

  Hello Lex, I am pleased to remake your acquaintance, though I am disturbed by Gryph’s disappearance.

  You and me both man, Lex sent, trying to hide his angst.

  You have nothing to fear from me, Lex. I am well-fed, thanks to Simon’s recent efforts.

  Oh, good. The thundering of blood pumping through his ears calmed ever so slightly and he ignored stray thoughts of what 'Simon’s efforts' entailed. So, what did you want to talk about?

  I have stretched my perceptions as far into the Aether as I am able and what was once disturbing has turned hopeful.

  Yeah buddy, I’ve got no clue what the hell you’re jabbering about.

  My apologies, I forget that you mortals have small minds and therefore inferior perception and understanding.

  Lex grumbled, but chose the wise route and ignored the powerful entity’s unintended insult.

  As you may be aware, I am a symbiotic energy entity born of the Aether. Though long-dormant, I was once among the most powerful of my kind. My reach spread far and wide across Korynn, and at my most powerful, even into other realms. Though I am diminished since that time, I have regained some of my wider perceptions.

  Understanding filled Lex’s mind. You’re like the Realm’s version of the Lattice, Lex said in wonderment, referencing the upgraded and universal network that had evolved from the internet back on Earth. The Barrow analyzed the concept and Lex felt what he could only describe as a nod of agreement.